Recent research has found that New Zealanders have reprioritised the importance of caring for others, with kindness for each other being more important than ever during these tough times. Following its success in Australia, the Care Collective, brought to you by Panadol, launched in New Zealand to uncover the remarkable stories of Kiwis who give back to their community and pay it forward by giving them something that will make a real difference to their lives, enabling them to better care for themselves and their community.
The Care Collective, brought to you by Panadol, has recognised a number of winners across the motu and is rewarding them with a share in $15,000 worth of care packages.
One of those winners is Breahn Stubbs, general manager at The Wellington Free Store, which rescues quality food that would otherwise be wasted and redistributes it to vulnerable people.
"Every day we go to more than 50 cafes and restaurants that we've built relationships with to pick up their surplus food, load it up into our shopping trolley and bring it back to our shipping container store," Stubbs told Newshub.
"At 5:45pm, the food is out of the trollies and on our shelves. Then people come in and choose what kai they'd like to take home. It's all free and we're open to anyone, everyone is welcome. We invite everyone to receive, participate and belong at the Free Store."
According to Stubbs, over a 72-day period this year the Free Store redistributed over 15,532kg of food in the form of 44,442 meals. Diverting that from the local landfill reduced carbon emissions by an estimated 25,628kg.
Over the whole year, it's said to add up to over 77,700kg of food providing 222,210 meals and reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 128,140kg.
More important than those impressive numbers to Stubbs however is actually seeing in real-time the positive change the Free Store brings to her community.
"Our core values of belonging, generosity and transformation," she said.
"A lot of people come to the free store to receive kai, but they're readily welcome to participate more if they want to. They are often really keen to volunteer and then might step into leadership positions or go a bit deeper in the community, and then we often see transformation.
"That could be someone moving to get a job, or to finding secure housing, just because the rhythm and the support that the Free Store community gives is so good. There's some really cool stuff going on in this community."
The Care Collective, brought to you by Panadol, was an opportunity for New Zealanders to nominate themselves or a deserving individual in their community who has an exceptional story of care.
Stubbs was nominated by a friend who she flats with and was humbled and honoured when she won, but wanted to make it clear the Free Store is not all about her.
"It's a collaborative beauty," she said. "I'm definitely keen to shine a light on the Free Store kaupapa and other food rescue and community kaupapa that are really drawing people together."
Panadol recently commissioned research to gain a deeper understanding of what care means to us as a nation.
The study found that New Zealanders have reprioritised the importance of caring for others with nearly 8 in 10 (78 percent) saying they realised the significance of caring for those around them. More than half of those surveyed (51 percent) admitted they would like to give more than they currently do, despite 77 percent claiming to currently proactively provide support to their community.
One way you can help is by giving a hand to The Wellington Free Store.
Anything you can contribute will help us to feed more vulnerable people in the Wellington community and ultimately reduce more food waste.
Article created in partnership with Haleon Consumer Healthcare NZ.
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*New, independent research commissioned by Haleon Consumer Healthcare NZ, the makers of Panadol.
